75 Reasons to Ship Lit
by Lady.of.Victory.Rising
Summary: Narcos, Nudists, Rogans beware! Reading this may very well change your opinions on your ship of choice and convert you to Lit. Seriously, it's dangerous. No, I DARE you to read it and test it out. The title pretty much sums it up. Collab'd with watram.


**Okay.**

**Here it is.**

**A comprehensive list of all (well, most) of the reasons why Rory and Jess are perfect together.**

**It is...**

**THE LIT LIST**

**(and it is not in any particular order)**

**1.** She was with Dean, kissed Jess. She was with Logan, kissed Jess. She was with Jess, kissed Jess. Only.

**2.** She has a special smile just for him (look at the hi! hi! scene in Let The Games Begin, or when she first sees him in Balalaikas. That's just happiness in it's purest form).

**3.** Their chemistry has always been earth-shattering.

**4.** He was the only one of her boys she was actually friends with. Hence Jess = boyfriend, Dean = self proclaimed owner, Logan = f*ck buddy she had fun with and wanted to fix. Okay, that was mean. I like Logan. But you must admit, it was kind of a weird relationship.

**5.** They never even broke up!

**6.** Balalaikas- She tried to shrug off Logan's hand when he put her arm around her when he was leading her to the car. Watch the scene where Logan meets Jess again veeeeery carefully. You'll see it as they're walking away. Clearly, she's feeling a little awkward being with another guy while Jess is standing RIGHT THERE...

**7.** They never say goodbye.

**8.** 100 times more passion than Rogan. 100^100 times more passion than Narco (I hope you speak math or that makes little sense to you!)

**9.** She saved him by giving him the reason to change his life.

**10.** For most people, not having stuff in common with your significant other isn't a problem. Rory, though, lives and breathes her music and her pop culture knowledge and her books. It's not just a habit or a hobby: it's integrated so tightly into the fabric of her daily life that someone who doesn't get it isn't going to be much good for her. Dean just smiled and nodded. Logan just matched her willpower with his own and forced her to change for him instead of the other way around.

**11.** He wished her happy birthday in Balalaikas, even though he didn't see her in a long time, he remembered. Unlike Logan, who called himself her boyfriend, was sleeping with her, but didn't know when her birthday was until Emily mentioned it.

**12.** He spent $90 on a basket with nothing but leftovers in it to have lunch with her!

**13.** He let his self-esteem go to hell for her.

**14.** He put up with Paris for her. And Paris actually shipped them!

**15.** Luke, Lane, Gypsy and Paris ALL ship Lit. Think about this. Aside from Gypsy, these are very important people in Rory's life who know her very well. If all of them think Jess is perfect for her... well, they're probably right. And frankly, Gypsy is just a total badass so her opinion counts for about four times what a normal person's does.

**16.** After L/L get married (unavoidable), Lits will forever remain in each other's lives whether they want it or not. So they better expand their connection to a romantic level sooner rather than later.

**17. **He waited for her. For years. Yeah, screw you Rogan shippers who want to point to the Love Rocket to prove that Logan is equal to Jess in the "I will wait for you forever" category, because he's NOT! Logan NEVER had to wait for her! But she had to wait for him. A lot. Because in the first 3-4 months of their relationship... well, we all know how it was.

**18.** She could always read him. Nobody else could really interpret the little nuances of his expressions the way she could. She didn't always know what was causing his emotions, but she could always pick up on it, which is more than anybody else could say.

**19.** When she was feeling insecure, he made sure she knew she was amazing ("I'll help you practice... tomorrow you'll stand in the middle of the street and I will drive straight at you screaming in a foreign language!"). He didn't let her get down on herself or doubt her abilities.

**20.** At the same time, though, he never put her on a pedestal the way the rest of the world seemed to. He didn't feel like he measured up, because he was seriously messed up (gee, thanks Liz!) at the time that they were together, but he never looked at her as this unattainable, perfect goddess. He just saw her as... well, human. He knew she wasn't perfect, he wasn't that naive, but he loved her all the same.

**21.** He did little, insanely romantic things for her (22.8 miles, taking her to The Distillers) instead of grand gestures and clichéd things like bringing her flowers.

**22.** He made her discover desire and 'think about it'.

**23.** 'Dodger' and 'Book-tease' are the cutest nicknames!

**24.** He wasn't a rebel without a cause. He was a rebel with a very clear cause of attracting Rory Gilmore's attention. He probably would have had it anyway without faking a murder in front of Doose's but his pranks made her laugh.

**25.** He had to work hard to get her. Not like with Dean, he kissed her and they were together. And certainly not like with Logan, where she had to do most of the work.

**26.** "Just a little tip: if you ever want to speak to me again, don't pull that out of my ear." "I'm guessing the nose is off-limits too?" "Pretty much anywhere you wouldn't naturally find a quarter."

**27.** Don't lie: you love the margin notes. And besides, not only are they absolutely brilliant literary insight, but they can be used as a euphemism for something!

**28.** He grew up. He matured. He learned from Rory Gilmore and became a better man. Not like Dean who just got stuck on her and became a stalker, not like Logan who, though he admittedly grew up, lost all of the charm and interesting qualities he had that made me like him so much during his early appearances in S5.

**29.** He killed the yuppie snowman.

**30.** She listened to him over everyone else in her life. More than Luke, more than Lane, more than Paris, more than Logan, more even than her mother, her best friend, the most important person in her life... More than all of them, she trusted Jess. He got through to her when no one else could.

**31.** He care-care-like-cared.

**32.** He made her stutter (look at #31), a rare thing for a Gilmore, while she made him talk, a rare thing for a Mariano.

**33.** It's just crazy that, having slept with 2 out of 3 of her boyfriends, she never did it with the one she had the most chemistry with. It's kind of special that they never had sex (yet). It's just one more thing that makes them different from Narcos and Sophies. Shows how much respect he had for her even though the passion was eating them both alive.

**34.** They liked to drive each other jealous out of their wits and pretend they didn't care. Two words here: Dance Marathon. And when Rory and Dean walked away, Jess shook off Shane's hand.

**35.** She STILL owes him an eggroll!

**36.** They have a special bridge. Narcos and Sophies don't have special places.

**37.** Their song is Guns of Brixton. Way better song than the Narco song (The Candyman? Seriously? WTF?) and I don't think she and Logan even HAD a song... unless you count whatever it was that they danced to in Wedding Bell Blues... Point is, The Clash is proof of awesomeness, and, well, they've got it.

**38.** Have you ever noticed that Rory gets this one particular look in her eye when she's lying about something? She had that look on throughout ALL of the confrontation at the end of The Real Paul Anka. Clearly, we have a reincarnation of Cleopatra, Queen of Denial.

**39.** He quit smoking for her.

**40.** He compared them to Romeo and Juliet! (And, sadly, that whole star-crossed thing was horribly true)

**41.** He was willing to wear a tux to prom for her. Remember when Dean had to wear a tux? Logan is a different story here, he probably got his first tux when he was two. But Jess got the tux with minimal complaining.

**42.** Her life would be dull without him. Enough said.

**43.** His 'I love you' was the best on the show, period. And Rory never got to say it back, though she did (love him) and that's another thing they yet have to make up for.

**44.** He stooped down to reading freaking self-help books to get her back. Jess Mariano and self-help books. One of these things is not like the other. Yet he did it.

**45.** "You really want me to go?" "I really... want to avoid a fight with Dean." Of course she didn't want him to go.

**46.** He wanted to flaunt it. Even in his surly, tough-guy phase, he was so far gone he just wanted to shout it to the whole world. ;)

**47.** And yet, at her request, he was Frank at the Sands.

**48.** But not even 12 hours later, she didn't care and was all over him in public.

**49.** People (meaning Lorelai, Luke, Lane) were never hesitant about mentioning Dean to her after they had broken up (for real, not the whole ugly S1 thing). Same with Logan. They were okay with bringing up their names a short while after the breakup. With Jess, however, Lorelai was scared to call him by name more than a year after they separated. And even at Lane's wedding, Jess' name still raises alarms. It's like they all subconsciously know that there's Something More with Jess than there was with any of the others!

**50.** He made an effort to be nice to Lorelai. Didn't work (mainly Lore's fault because she was being unreasonable- what a shocker), but he did try.

**51.** ASP herself acknowledged that there was "a meeting of the minds there". When she created Jess, she created him with the INTENTION that he would be Rory's true soul mate. She just wanted to play around and give them an interesting story to tell the grandkids first... ;)

**52.** After Dean broke up with Rory at the Dance Marathon, Jess was obviously happy about it but he gave her time and waited for her signal that it was OK. It shows how much he cared.

**53.** Jess has class. Probably more class than both Dean and Logan combined. While Dean was perfectly happy to cheat on his wife, and Logan was more than willing to go sleep with someone the second he thought his relationship was over, Jess did the classy thing and, rather than making a move on Rory after the breakup with Dean, he went to settle things with a girl whose last name he didn't even know before doing something with the girl he was in love with. That's class! (For more examples of Jess being a seriously classy guy, PM me, I've got tons)

**54.** She refused to hurt him by showing him her withering stare.

**55.** She didn't want a soda, she wanted a kiss!

**56.** And there was more energy and sexual tension in that almost-kiss than in either of her other two relationships.

**57.** Many people say that Jess is just a jerk who never treated her right and who never cared about anyone but himself. But frankly, he really never treated her that badly. He occasionally didn't call when he said he would, but in the grand scheme of things that is NOT that bad. And look at how much he cares about Luke, a guy he didn't even meet until he was sixteen! Clearly, he's not this stone-hearted jerk that some people would like to make him out to be.

**58.** He was cooler about the Rory-and-Dean-are-friends thing than Dean was about the Rory-and-Jess-are-friends thing. And he was way nicer to Logan than Logan was to him.

**59.** She likes his crazy hair.

**60.** She made him smile. He always had that little smile tucked into the corner of his mouth just for her. Always. And Jess is not a smiley guy, but it was always there for her.

**61.** "Look, you know we're supposed to be together. I knew it the first time I saw you two years ago, and you know it, too. I know you do."

**62.** Even DEAN could see their connection.

**63. **Even LUKE could see their connection (and that's saying something).

**64. **"This black eye screwed everything up. Next time I go to your grandmother's, I promise not to have one." "Next time?" He was willing to go and meet Emily again, knowing what impression he has made. Now, if that's not love, I don't know what is.

**65.** They were crowned 'a really sweet old agoraphobic couple' and Jess seemed flattered by that!

**66.** Even in the noisy, crowded diner, in the presence of both Lorelai and Taylor, they were able just to hold hands, look each other and lock themselves in their own world (Face Off)

**67.** One of the biggest problems with their relationship was the fact that she spent more energy catering to Dean's wounded feelings than to truly caring for Jess. In any future relationship they begin, this isn't going to be a problem, because A) there probably won't be an ex THAT clingy hanging around and B) Rory has grown up and learned how to really be with the one you're with.

**68.** She understood him. She might not have known all the details about his life before her, but she always just got him in a way no one else ever really had.

**69.** She couldn't catch her breath.

**70.** Rory was never really comfortable in the high-class atmosphere. She could fake it well, but Gilmore movie nights were more her thing. She was always better adjusted to Jess' idea of a dinner date (meaning a random hot dog stand in New York).

**71.** She loved his book because it didn't remind her of anything, it was just him. By extension, she loved HIM!

**72.** I'm not sure if we had it before or not... he had the ability to hurt her much more thatn Logan ever did, even with his cheating, which doesn't mean that the things he did were worse, it just means that what HE did, affected her more.

**73.** Wisdom of Lane: "How incredibly romantic to have this guy show up out of the blue and want to take you away with him?" Indeed.

**74.** More Wisdom of Lane: "It's part of why he's cute - he's unpredictable."

**75.** In Rory's own words: "You just have to let it happen. And then- probably when you're not looking- you'll find someone who complements you. Someone who likes what you like. Someone who reads the same books or listens to the same music or likes to trash the same movies. Someone compatible. But not so compatible that they're boring... You respect each other's opinions and you can laugh at the same jokes but, I don't know, there's just something about not quite knowing what the other person's going to do at all times that's just really... exciting." This is a perfect description of a healthy relationship... and she was talking about Jess at the time.


End file.
